Today’s question about the Broncos comes from Ted S.
Q: Why was the offensive line more effective Sunday? Better schemes, better play or both?
A: Ted, likely both. Broncos coach John Fox has referenced it many times in the last week or so, but the team took some solace from the 190 yards of rushing it had in the 35-point loss to the Lions.
The Broncos believed they had found a few things in the Willis McGahee-Tim Tebow combination that could work in the run game with a little tweak here and there.
They also clearly made the decision last week to stop, at least for the moment, trying to develop Tebow as a pocket passer. It appears the bulk of that work will wait until the offseason, or whichever decision they make about the future.
But last week the Broncos took a playbook already leaning toward Tebow’s run-first abilities and moved it a little more, dropping in plenty of the read-option plays Tebow ran at the University of Florida.
There is a bit of a misconception that NFL teams haven’t run the option all that much because it wouldn’t work against the speed and size of the players on defense.
That is true — the sideline-to-sideline speed will always make it difficult for any NFL team to use the option as an offensive staple, even as the Broncos will try to do so in the next few weeks.
But the biggest issue, as any option coach or option quarterback will tell you, is that the quarterback gets hit on virtually every play in the attack. And the career expectancy of an NFL quarterback who gets hits on virtually every play by NFL defenders won’t be long.
With Tebow, it will be a question of the punishment he absorbs by running into the line of scrimmage as well as whatever hits he takes in the pocket as a passer.
Tebow had 12 carries in Sunday’s 38-24 victory over the Raiders, was sacked twice and took a total of five hits in his dropbacks to pass. That’s plenty of contact — 17 hits in all. Saints quarterback Drew Brees, for example, took three hits Sunday.
That said, the Broncos are kind of all-in at this point to see if Tebow can hold up physically.
Against the Raiders, it all worked just fine. McGahee had the second-best rushing day of his career — 163 yards — and the Broncos’ offensive front had its best overall day of the season.
Most personnel executives in the league would say they are far more comfortable firing out in the run game than they are in pass protection, and that showed Sunday. Even down 17-7 at halftime, the pace of the game allowed the Broncos to run the ball in almost any down-and-distance situation.
The previous week against the Lions, when the Broncos were down 24-3 at halftime and 38-3 in the third quarter, those opportunities weren’t there because the pace of that game was far different. To make it work week after week, Tebow will have to somehow manage his contact and the Broncos will have to show they can run even when the opposition knows it’s coming.
Jeff Legwold: 303-954-2359 or jlegwold@denverpost.com
